Supported Platforms

Note: Extended splashscreen does not require the plugin on Windows (as opposed to Android and iOS) in case you don't use the plugin API, i.e. programmatic hide/show.

iOS-specific information

There are two mechanisms for displaying a launch screen on iOS:

Legacy launch images: images are sized exactly for the device's screen size. Does not support the iPad Pro 12.9's native resolution or split-screen/slide-over multitasking.

Launch storyboard images: Images are sized based on scale, idiom, and size classes. Supports all devices, and can be used with split-screen/slide-over multitasking.

Apple is moving away from legacy launch images. There is no official support for providing a native-resolution launch image for the iPad Pro 12.9 or for providing launch images that work with split-screen multitasking or slide-over. If your app doesn't need to support these contexts, then you can continue to use legacy launch images for as long as you like.

The preferred method of providing launch images is to use a launch storyboard. For native app developers, the ideal launch storyboard is an unpopulated version of the app's user interface at launch. For non-native app developers who don't wish to learn Interface Builder, however, this plugin simulates the legacy launch image method as much as is feasible.

Legacy launch images

If you choose to use legacy launch images, you will use the following syntax in config.xml:

Technically the filename for the src attribute can be anything you want; the filenames are used because they match what will be used when your project is compiled. The width and height attributes determine which launch images are displayed on which devices as follows:

width

height

device (orientation)

320

480

All non-retina iPhones and iPods

640

960

iPhone 4/4s/5/5s (portrait)

750

1334

iPhone 6/6s/7 (portrait)

1242

2208

iPhone 6+/6s+/7+ (portrait)

2208

1242

iPhone 6+/6s+/7+ (landscape)

768

1024

All non-retina iPads (portrait)

1024

768

All non-retina iPads (landscape)

1536

2048

All retina iPads (portrait)

2048

1536

All retina iPads (landscape)

Note: It is vitally important that the source image actually matches the size specified in the width and height attributes. If it does not, the device may fail to render it properly, if at all.

Launch storyboard images

In order to support newer form factors and split-screen/slide-over multitasking, you should use launch storyboard images. These are similar to the legacy launch images above, but there are crucial differences:

images are not specific to a given device.

images are scaled to fill the available viewport (while maintaining the aspect ratio).

the outer edges of the images will be cropped, and the amount will vary based on device an viewport.

there is no need to provide an image for each possible device, viewport, and orientation; iOS will choose the best image for the situation automatically.

Designing launch storyboard images

The key to designing a launch storyboard image is understanding that the edges of the image will almost certainly be cropped. Therefore, one should not place any important information near the edges of any images provided to the launch storyboard. Only the center is a safe area, and this all but guarantees that following Apple's advice of presenting an unpopulated user interface will not work well.

Instead, the following tips should enable you to create a launch image that works across a multitude of form factors, viewports, and orientations:

Important graphics (logos, icons, titles) should be centered. The safe bounding region will vary, so you will need to test to ensure that the important graphics are never cropped. Better yet, don't supply any important graphics in the first place.

You can fine-tune the placement and size of these graphics, but you don't have the same fine-grained control as you did with legacy launch images.

Use a simple color wash. If you use two colors, you'll want one color to fill the top half of the image, and the second to fill the bottom half. If you use a gradient, you'll probably want to ensure that the middle of the gradient lines up with the center of the image.

Don't worry about pixel perfection -- because the images are scaled, there's almost no chance the images will be perfectly fit to the pixel grid. Since all supported iOS devices use retina screens, users will be hard pressed to notice it anyway.

It is important to understand the concept of scale, idiom, and size class traits in order to use launch storyboard images effectively. Of the images supplied to the launch storyboard, iOS will choose the image that best matches the device and viewport and render that image. It is possible to supply only one launch image if so desired, but it is also possible to fine-tune the displayed launch image based on traits. When fine-tuning, one can ignore traits that aren't targeted or supported by the app.

Note: If you are using launch storyboard images, there is no need to include legacy images. If you do, the legacy images will be copied, but not used.

Scale

scale

devices

1x

All non-retina devices

2x

Most retina devices

3x

iPhone 6+/6s+,7s+

In general, you'll want to supply 2x and 3x images. Cordova only supports retina devices now, so there's no point in supplying 1x images.

Idioms

idiom

devices

ipad

All iPads

iphone

All iPhones and iPod Touches

universal

All devices

You only need to provide universal images unless you need to fine-tune for a specific device idiom.

Size classes

There are two size classes applies to both screen axes. Narrow viewports are considered to be the "compact" size class, and remaining viewports are considered "regular". When supplying images to Xcode, however, one must choose between "any & compact" and "any & regular". To stay consistent with the native terminology, this feature will match based on "any" and "compact". any will match regular-sized viewports.

Single-image launch screen

If your launch image is simple, you may be able to avoid creating a lot of different launch images and supply only one. The launch image needs to meet the following requirements:

the image should be square

the image should be large enough to fit on an iPad Pro 12.9": 2732x2732

anything important should fit within the center

Keep in mind that the image will be cropped, possibly quite severely, depending upon the viewport.

Once the image is created, you can include it in your project by adding the following to config.xml:

<splash src="res/screen/ios/Default@2x~universal~anyany.png" />

Because only one image is provided, iOS will utilize it in every context.

Multi-image launch screen

If a single launch image won't meet your needs, you will probably need to supply at least six images, if not more. Furthermore, keep in mind that it will not be possible to fine tune the image to a specific device, but only to a device class, display factor, and viewport size.

If you don't need to target images to a specific idiom, you should create six images, as follows:

scale

idiom

width

height

size

filename

2x*

universal

any

any

2732x2732

Default@2x~universal~anyany.png

2x

universal

com

any

1278x2732

Default@2x~universal~comany.png

2x

universal

com

com

1334x750

Default@2x~universal~comcom.png

3x*

universal

any

any

2208x2208

Default@3x~universal~anyany.png

3x

universal

any

com

2208x1242

Default@3x~universal~anycom.png

3x

universal

com

any

1242x2208

Default@3x~universal~comany.png

* this image is required in order for iOS utilize the other images within this scale and idiom.

Note: If the 3x sizes look small too you, that's because there's only one device class that currently has a 3x density: the iPhone 6+/6s+/7+.

The above looks like the following snippet when present in config.xml:

Quirks and Known Issues

App on target may not reflect changes to images Once you run the app on a target, iOS caches the launch image. Unfortunately, when you chance the images, iOS does not invalidate the cache, which means you'll still see the old launch image. You should either: delete the app, or reset content & settings (simulator).

Simulator may not show expected images when launched from CLI When Xcode deploys to a specific simulator, it only copies the assets that match the simulator's characteristics. For example, if you try to run an app on the iPhone 6s Plus simulator, only @3x launch images are copied. When compiling from the CLI, however, the default is to assume an iPhone 5s, which means only @2x launch images are copied. Unless your launch images are markedly different, chances are good the difference would go unnoticed, but this does mean that the only accurate method of testing is to test on a physical device.

anyany must be provided for other variations to be used If you don't provide an anyany version of the launch image for a specific scale and idiom, the other variations (like anycom, comany, and comcom) will ignored.

Example Configuration

In the top-level config.xml file (not the one in platforms), add configuration elements like those specified here.

Please notice that the value of the "src" attribute is relative to the project root directory and not to the www directory (see Directory structure below). You can name the source image whatever you like. The internal name in the app is determined by Cordova.

Preferences

config.xml

AutoHideSplashScreen (boolean, default to true). Indicates whether to hide splash screen automatically or not. Splash screen hidden after amount of time specified in the SplashScreenDelay preference.

<preference name="AutoHideSplashScreen" value="true" />

SplashScreenDelay (number, default to 3000). Amount of time in milliseconds to wait before automatically hide splash screen.

<preference name="SplashScreenDelay" value="3000" />

Note also that this value used to be seconds, and not milliseconds, so values less than 30 will still be treated as seconds. ( Consider this a deprecated patch that will disapear in some future version. )

To disable the splashscreen add the following preference to config.xml:

<preference name="SplashScreenDelay" value="0"/>

iOS Quirk: to disable the splashscreen on ios platform you should also add <preference name="FadeSplashScreenDuration" value="0"/> to config.xml.

FadeSplashScreen (boolean, defaults to true): Set to false to prevent the splash screen from fading in and out when its display state changes.

<preference name="FadeSplashScreen" value="false"/>

FadeSplashScreenDuration (float, defaults to 500): Specifies the number of milliseconds for the splash screen fade effect to execute.

<preference name="FadeSplashScreenDuration" value="750"/>

Note: FadeSplashScreenDuration is included into SplashScreenDelay, for example if you have <preference name="SplashScreenDelay" value="3000" /> and <preference name="FadeSplashScreenDuration" value="1000"/> defined in config.xml:

00:00 - splashscreen is shown

00:02 - fading has started

00:03 - splashscreen is hidden

Turning the fading off via <preference name="FadeSplashScreen" value="false"/> technically means fading duration to be 0 so that in this example the overall splash delay will still be 3 seconds.

Note: This only applies to the app startup - you need to take the fading timeout into account when manually showing/hiding the splashscreen in the code:

Android Quirks

"SplashMaintainAspectRatio" preference is optional. If set to true, splash screen drawable is not stretched to fit screen, but instead simply "covers" the screen, like CSS "background-size:cover". This is very useful when splash screen images cannot be distorted in any way, for example when they contain scenery or text. This setting works best with images that have large margins (safe areas) that can be safely cropped on screens with different aspect ratios.

The plugin reloads splash drawable whenever orientation changes, so you can specify different drawables for portrait and landscape orientations.

"SplashShowOnlyFirstTime" preference is also optional and defaults to true. When set to true splash screen will only appear on application launch. However, if you plan to use navigator.app.exitApp() to close application and force splash screen appear on next launch, you should set this property to false (this also applies to closing the App with Back button).

Methods

splashscreen.hide

BlackBerry 10, WP8, iOS Quirk

The config.xml file's AutoHideSplashScreen setting must be false. To delay hiding the splash screen for two seconds, add a timer such as the following in the deviceready event handler:

setTimeout(function() {
navigator.splashscreen.hide();
}, 2000);

splashscreen.show

Displays the splash screen.

navigator.splashscreen.show();

Your application cannot call navigator.splashscreen.show() until the app has started and the deviceready event has fired. But since typically the splash screen is meant to be visible before your app has started, that would seem to defeat the purpose of the splash screen. Providing some configuration in config.xml will automatically show the splash screen immediately after your app launch and before it has fully started and received the deviceready event. For this reason, it is unlikely you need to call navigator.splashscreen.show() to make the splash screen visible for app startup.